Attempts to reach Pickett late Wednesday were unsuccessful. During the first hearing on May 1, lawmakers were told that the responsibility for ensuring that hazardous materials are properly stored lies on local officials, who are also responsible for inspecting sites for safety purposes. There are 41 fertilizer-blending facilities in Texas with supplies of ammonium nitrate. There was 2,400 tons of the chemical at the West plant.

A spokeswoman for the fire marshal’s office this week said the cause of the West Fertilizer Co. plant explosion remains under investigation. Last month, officials announced in a news conference that they had ruled out all but three potential causes: an electrical shortage, a golf cart on the plant grounds and an “intentionally set fire.”

Law enforcement officers have yet to comment on a possible connection to former West volunteer paramedic Bryce Reed, 31, who was arrested on a charge of possession of bomb-explosive materials, namely, components of a pipe bomb. His lawyer has denied that Reed was at all involved in the plant explosion, saying that Reed “lost friends, family and neighbors in that disaster.”

In an interview about the state’s orders for fire departments to “stand down for safety” and focus on reviewing operations on Friday in response to the 18 line-of-duty deaths so far this year, the president of the Texas Fire Chief’s Association, Robert Isbell, speculated on the actions of the first responders in the West catastrophe. A dozen firefighters and paramedics died at the scene, and three civilians who lived nearby were killed.

“Those firefighters saved many, many lives in that community,” said Isbell, who is also the chief of the Midland Fire Department. “They were trying to get out. They knew that there was a potential for disaster, but that’s the job that firefighters do — they go in when everyone else is going out.”